• Welterweight

Mayweather confirms Guerrero fight in new PPV deal

ESPN staff
February 19, 2013
Floyd Mayweather Jr has signed a new, multi-million pound TV deal © PA Photos
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Welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr's next opponent will be Robert Guerrero, it has been confirmed.

Mayweather will step into the ring with Guerrero on May 4 in the first fight of a new pay-per-view deal the WBC welterweight champion has signed with Showtime Sports.

Mayweather, 35, turned down the opportunity to renew an agreement with HBO - the traditional home of pay-per-view boxing in the United States, and the American's long-term television partner - in order to strike up a partnership with Showtime, which could see him fight six times in the next 30 months.

The first fight of that partnership will be against Guerrero, while it is expected that up-and-coming WBC light-middleweight Saul Alvarez will meet WBA counterpart Austin Trout at the top of the undercard.

In a press release, Mayweather's deal was described as "a unique revenue-sharing agreement" that is "by far the biggest in the sport of boxing". If PPV sales for six fights meet expectations, "it will be the richest individual athlete deal in all of sports".

Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather's financial advisor, told ESPN: "Bottom line, HBO was outgunned. They came to a gun fight with a knife."

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